Food Industry News, Insights, and Education for the CPG Community

The frozen entrees category is seeing a slowdown in dollar and unit sales with frozen meals seeing a larger decline while frozen pasta remains flat.

In this week’s notable new products roundup, SNAX-Sational takes inspiration from a classic lunchbox staple to create its newest popcorn flavor, Nourish unveils what it claims to be the first instant chia protein pudding, and Munk Pack introduces a new Probiotic Protein line.

Conventional chocolate leads the category with 174% YoY growth in conversations mentioning it. Functional chocolate conversations spark ideas for innovation with 105% YoY growth and a high sentiment score of 95. Meanwhile, sugar candy is growing 64% YoY, driven by seasonal peaks, nostalgia, and niche flavors.

Despite posting better-than-expected Q2 results, Cheerios and Betty Crocker maker General Mills announced yesterday that it has lowered its profit outlook for fiscal 2025 as it implements short-term promotions to attract budget-conscious consumers.

The CPG Week podcast jumps into the latest M&A news with the failure of the Kroger-Albertsons merger, a denied proposal by Mondelēz to acquire Hershey and Lamb Weston acquisition rumors.

Cameron Smith jumped back into the CPG game this month, supported by a handful of his Kodiak colleagues, with the launch of protein pretzel brand Kindling Snacks.

For a vast number of chocolate makers, this year has been anything but sweet. Amidst surging cocoa prices – which are still on a wild roller coaster ride – conglomerates like The Hershey Company and Mondelēz International have resorted to passing price hikes on to consumers to reduce the impact on their balance sheets, while investors have expressed increased interest in high-tech startups producing alt-cocoa products with methods like fermentation and plant cell culture.

The chocolate sector is closing out a year plagued by adverse weather conditions and supply chain woes in West Africa on an increasingly bitter note.

Get ready for our December Community Calls! This month, dive into key regulatory issues affecting CPG and unique paths to funding. Our December calls are free and open to the public—just register in advance and mark your calendar.

Mesquite may be best known for barbecue, but the plant also produces nutritious pods that can stand in for cocoa beans in chocolate recipes. Enter Mez Foods, a Chicago-based startup that is championing the ingredient in a line of premium tablet bars that are made with mesquite bean flour, plus illipe butter, chufa flour, pea and rice protein fermented by shiitake mycelium, sugar, carob powder and oat fiber.

Amid a significant period of growth, Sunnie is working to recover from supply chain shifts that resulted in lower product standards, a production model reversal and a plethora of learnings on how to scale the business for its co-founders.

In this week’s notable new products roundup, Cedar’s unveils a sweet new limited-edition flavor, Snak Club heats up its product portfolio in partnership with Tajin, and Alouette joins forces with Gopuff to deliver Emergen-Cheese kits to consumers’ doors.

The Kroger Company and Albertsons Companies this week terminated the proposed $24.6 billion merger agreement that was initially announced more than two years ago, after a federal judge sided with the Federal Trade Commission suing to block the deal and Washington and Oregon state courts put permanent injunctions in place to halt the transaction.

History has repeated itself as Hershey’s controlling owner yesterday rejected a preliminary takeover offer from candy and snacking rival Mondelēz International, according to a Bloomberg News report citing people familiar with the matter.The Hershey Trust – which holds approximately 80% of the voting power at the company – labeled the offer as too low.